Wojciech Jastrzębowski (1799-1882)

In the Łazienki gardens, on the escarpment near the Old Orangery, stands a sundial known as the Jastrzębowski Boulder. Its creator, Wojciech Jastrzębowski, was a biologist and an educationalist from an impoverished noble family. He studied at the Warsaw University at the Faculty of Construction and Surveying, and later in the Philosophy Department. In the years 1825–1829, he worked in the physics study of the University. It was at that time when he designed and built the so-called Polish Compass, a device for building sundials. However, his primary field of interest was botany.